New UF-created technique may help quell cholera outbreak

A new technique honed by University of Florida scientists can track rapid molecular changes that occur in cholera strains during epidemics and researchers hope the genetic analysis will help stamp out such outbreaks. The results of the UF study are published this month in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. “Cholera spreads quickly through contaminated food and water and can survive in the environment,” said Judy Johnson, one of the paper’s authors, a UF College of Medicine professor and member of the Emerging Pathogens Institute. “Tracking the spread in real-time, at a community level, is essential in helping identify sources of contamination so that they can be eliminated, stopping the spread of disease before it gets worse.” In October, UF researchers went to Haiti during the cholera outbreak to collect stool samples from 19 patients suffering from severe diarrhea at St. Marc’s Hospital in...